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Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

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Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#181

Post by dghlsakjg »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #174
dghlsakjg wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever watched a film like Come and See, Schindlers list, Grave of the fireflies, etc…? These movies are some of the most impactful that I have ever seen, but by no means would I rate them highly rewatchable. They are gut wrenching, and some people can only stand to watch them once, few want to rewatch them, but they are also incredible. I also gain a lot from a rewatchable piece of content, but you might be s…

I've seen the latter two, but they are most certainly very rewatchable. I saw Schindler's List again with my wife about a year ago and enjoyed it just as thoroughly as the first time. >I also gain a lot from a rewatchable piece of content, but you might be shorting yourself by always watching things designed to tickle the dopamine receptors. Now this I just do not understand. Things designed to be good on primarily t…

Ahh.

I think we are coming from different feelings about rewatchability.

If you asked me to rate movies as to their artistic merit, their excellence as films, I would say that those all fall into “instant classic” territory. However, I would not want to rewatch them in the same way that I might want to rewatch a Coen brothers film, for example.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#182

Post by phist_mcgee »

okucu wrote: post #38
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #9

I think most people looking for an alternative to Goodreads are using Storygraph.

I found the UI of story graph unusable, like among the worst I had ever seen. I remember having to google how to see books I've already read. Using hardcover.app now, whose only issue is that the performance is really bad

Storygraph is brilliant, but it really needs some UX love for things like viewing your book piles (read, to-read, dnf) etc.

It's also quite slow, but I suspect that's just part of it being a smaller site.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#183

Post by lostmsu »

nerdponx wrote: post #18
magicalhippo wrote: post #12

> 10-star rating system (More nuance than 5 stars) Does one really get anything meaningful out of saying this was a 6-star book vs a 7-star book? Personally I think 4 levels is sufficient. Either it's rather bad, not bad but not good, good but not great or it's great. Anything beyond that will have to be written in words.

No, and that's why Netflix switched to thumbs up/down instead of 5 stars.

Last time I saw a movie there there was "super thumbs up" in addition to normal one.

For clarity I'd replace rating systems with "was it a good spend of my time?" yes/no question. Then just show percentages. Could not be clearer.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#184

Post by jbrr25 »

vasanthk1125 wrote: post #66
ijustlovemath wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you added half stars and stuck to a 5-star system, there's less user surprise for functionally the same thing.

I did go back and forth on this. I just like 10 stars better. IMDB, MAL, Mangadex all have 10 stars. So it's not really uncommon. But yeah, if a lot of people feel 5 is enough, we'll just return it back to the 5 star system.

Anilist let's you switch your rating system. You can do 5 stars, 10 points, 100 points or a simple 3 points reprrsented with emojis. I quite like the idea, although I think it makes it a little more complicated to calculate ratings for all people.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#185

Post by baby »

SamBam wrote: post #98
kmfrk wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Goodfilms (goodfil.ms), rest in peace, had a great two-rating system with Quality and Rewatchability, because the latter turned out to be a really useful metric. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3082241 One of the main frustrations I have with Goodreads is how limited the API is nowadays, and how there appear to be no measures against brigading and other campaigns. One of the core issues with ratings services. Pe…

How does one use an average Rewatchability score to determine whether one should watch a movie? If I'm trying to pick a movie, I don't care what its score for rewatching is, I care about what its score is for watching it the first time. And once I've watched a movie, I don't care about whether other people say I should watch it again, I care about whether I want to watch it again. A movie is different from buying a b…

I feel like a movie can be a good time, but I wouldn't rewatch it.

For example, I just watched the Gorge. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't rewatch it. I don't think it necessarily deserves a bad grade though.

Now, some great movies I wouldn't rewatch. La vita e bella and grave of the firefly are beautiful, I just cannot rewatch them.

It's definitely a limited metric tho.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#187

Post by ijustlovemath »

jbrr25 wrote: post #184
vasanthk1125 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did go back and forth on this. I just like 10 stars better. IMDB, MAL, Mangadex all have 10 stars. So it's not really uncommon. But yeah, if a lot of people feel 5 is enough, we'll just return it back to the 5 star system.

Anilist let's you switch your rating system. You can do 5 stars, 10 points, 100 points or a simple 3 points reprrsented with emojis. I quite like the idea, although I think it makes it a little more complicated to calculate ratings for all people.

You could do a simple weighting, probably adjusting for sample distributions.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#188

Post by acrophiliac »

vasanthk1125 wrote: post #72
acrophiliac wrote: post #71

Am I asking too much to request a way to preview the site without establishing an account? A short demo video? Even just screenshots?

You can view the website without registering though? Just click the link and browse without registering.

Thanks! Got it.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#189

Post by teeray »

magicalhippo wrote: post #12

> 10-star rating system (More nuance than 5 stars) Does one really get anything meaningful out of saying this was a 6-star book vs a 7-star book? Personally I think 4 levels is sufficient. Either it's rather bad, not bad but not good, good but not great or it's great. Anything beyond that will have to be written in words.

My stars are as follows:

5 - This book was so good that it’s life-changing

4 - This is a really good book

3 - I enjoyed this book, it was good.

2 - It’s alright.

1 - I hated this book with every fiber of my being, because it somehow tricked me into finishing it despite my hatred of it.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#190

Post by crossroadsguy »

My personal quick nitpick of a feedback would be

- maybe users do not want a "modern" alternative to Goodreads per se? I know, I am not saying people are looking for a website from the 90s but one might want to keep in mind that this is a community that still reads books (and a lot of them actual paper books). This looks like standard website interface that get inherited from one of those nuvo web frameworks looks. The "feel" from the home page is very bland. Like a standard landing page of some sort.

- And sadly I do not want to create an account to explore the features and then hope that there is an easy delete a/c option. In fact even if I'd know I could delet the a/c I would be not inclined to create an a/c

- No, please don't do the 10 point rating. That's all over. 4 is the best with half stars. Hell, even 2 or 3 would not be bad. I'd have said 5 with half stars but that's essentially 10. 0, 0.5,…, 3.5, 4 is really the best imho. Even after Mr Ebert is gone and a lot of the later reviewes on his site are just, let's say not what he was even remotely, I still like rogerebert's 4 star rating system.

- Since I have not tried it, I hope you have an easy way to import everything from Goodreads.

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